Why Matthew Morrison Tried To Leave Glee Before Cory Monteith's Death

Following Cory Monteith's passing, Matthew Morrison said it would have been inappropriate to leave "Glee" behind, and he returned for Season 5 in 2014. "Obviously I understood, I was like 'Yeah, I get it.' You know, trying to reconcile my own wants and selfish needs with the grief of losing an amazing friend, you know, there's a lot of just mixed emotions," Morrison told Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz on their podcast. "But I'm a professional, I showed up, I did my job. And there was a good pay increase so that worked, too."

Morrison remained on "Glee" through the series' sixth and final season in 2015. Reconciling his feelings about wanting to leave the series in 2013, the actor explained that he came to realize Will Schuester's function on the series after taking the deemphasis of his character so personally. "I [looked] at the demographic of what the show ended up being, you know, it's like, 'They don't wanna see Mr. Schuester, they wanna see all the kids,' So that made sense to me."

After "Glee," Morrison guest-starred on such series as CBS' "The Good Wife" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." In 2019, Morrison reunited with Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for Season 9 of their hit anthology series "American Horror Story." Sporting short brown hair and a bushy mustache, Morrison is unrecognizable as Trevor Kirchner, the director of activities at Camp Redwood in "American Horror Story: 1984" — a story inspired by slasher horror movies from the '80s.